Boyfriends, Beer, and a Stupid Tree
by SupernaturalMondler
Summary: Josh and Sam get ready to celebrate their first Christmas together.


**Wow I said I was gonna write a Sam/Josh Christmas fic, and I actually wrote a Sam/Josh Christmas fic...AND finished itt before Christmas?! That literally never happens wow I'm so productive XD this takes place in my little half-formed universe of when Sam and Josh met as young congressional staffers, before Bartlet, etc**

"Babe look what I got!"

Josh didn't so much as have time to open his eyes before a Sam-shaped weight landed on top of him.

"Oof!" he protested, but when he looked up, all he could see was his boyfriend's grinning face and shining blue eyes.

"Hi!" Sam greeted happily.

"Hi?" Josh raised his eyebrows and shifted so that he was leaning up slightly against the arm of the couch.

"Hi," Sam repeated.

Josh rolled his eyes. "So? You gonna tell me what you got?"

"Oh yeah!" Sam exclaimed, then scrambled up as though he had genuinely forgotten what he had been so excited about when he entered the apartment and disrupted Josh's nap. Josh rolled his eyes and sat up fully, his gaze following Sam across the room. "Ta-da!"

"What in god's name is that?" Josh asked.

"It's our Christmas tree!" Sam replied, his excitement not at all dimmed by Josh's skepticism. What Sam had dragged home, in Josh's opinion, could barely be counted as a shrub, much less a tree. It barely reached over Sam's knee, and its branches looked too weak to support any sort of trimmings. Josh thought it was closer to a branch than a tree, and certainly nothing to write home about, but Sam seemed genuinely proud of his find.

"Why do we even need a Christmas tree?" Josh huffed.

" _Because_ ," Sam replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He abandoned the tree and flopped down on the couch again, only half on top of Josh this time. "It's Christmas, silly! Of course we need a tree!"

"We're hardly ever home," Josh reminded him.

"We're home right now," Sam countered.

" _Sam_."

" _Josh_ ," Sam countered. "Stop being difficult."

"I just don't understand why we need to decorate here is all!"

"Because it's fun! Come on, Josh, you know how to have fun, don't you?"

"Oh, I'll show you fun," Josh taunted, pulling Sam down across his lap and pinching at his sides, making the other man squirm as he giggled, and Josh laughed along with him.

" _Joshhhhh_ ," Sam whined, but Josh persisted. "Josh! Okay, dammit, _fine_! You're lots of fun!"

"Damn straight," Josh confirmed, finally stilling his hands.

"Or damn gay," Sam smirked.

"Okay, stop that," Josh instructed, only half-serious. He pulled Sam up so that the other man was sitting sideways across his lap, and Sam snaked his arms around Josh's neck.

"Hi," he whispered, resting his forehead against Josh's.

"We did that already," Josh breathed.

"Yeah," Sam smiled, "I suppose we did."

Josh huffed out a laugh before leaning in and kissing his boyfriend on the lips. "We didn't do that yet."

"Excellent observation," Sam teased.

"Hey, you know me, mind is always sharp," Josh replied. Sam leaned in for one more kiss before pulling back, though he made no move to get up from his seat on Josh's lap.

"Josh?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you not…want to celebrate Christmas at all?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"What? No, why would you even ask that?" Josh replied.

"I mean, I know you don't really celebrate Christmas, but you didn't really celebrate Hanukkah either so I just wasn't sure if it was because you didn't want to, or if it would upset you if I did, and we don't have to if you don't want to, I just thought since it was our first Christmas together we could, you know, do something at least. But if you don't want to we don't—"

"Sam," Josh interrupted his lovers rambling.

"Yeah," Sam deflated. "Right. Sorry."

"Sam, no," Josh stopped him again. "I'd love to celebrate Christmas with you."

"Really, Josh, you don't have to—"

"No, I do want to. Promise," Josh assured him. "We…I dunno, we celebrated both when I was growing up, but ever since I've been on my own I haven't felt like doing anything, and I guess it's been a few years since I actually went home for the holidays. So I just kind of…forget? That it's nice, sometimes. When you're not on your own. I'm not on my own this year, am I?" Josh smiled shyly and Sam smiled back, the look on his face fond.

"No honey, you're not," Sam agreed. "It doesn't have to be a big deal, y'know? We could just order takeout, watch a movie or something. My stupid tree just standing in the corner watching us."

"It's sweet that you got a tree, even if it is a stupid tree," Josh grinned, poking Sam gently on the cheek.

" _Hey_ ," Sam protested. "It's a perfectly good…okay, yeah it's a pretty stupid tree, but it's better than no tree, right?"

"Absolutely babe," Josh nodded. "I'm sorry I'm so useless about this, but I really do appreciate that you, I don't know, _want_ to spend Christmas with me."

"Josh, of course I want to spend Christmas with you!" Sam exclaimed. "I could've gone home, you know. Caffrey gave us like a week off. But I knew you were staying in town and I wanted to stay with you. We don't have to do anything special, I just wanted to spend Christmas with you."

"Sam…" Josh whispered. Unable to find the words, he pulled his boyfriend to him, burying his face in Sam's shoulder.

"Is that…is that okay?" Sam asked cautiously, running a gentle hand down Josh's back.

" _Yes_ , god, yes," Josh whispered again. "That's… _Sam_ …" He looked up, face betraying every emotion he felt at that moment. Them suddenly, he blurted out, "I love you," because he couldn't think of a single other thing to accurately portray what he was feeling for his boyfriend at that moment. "I just…I love you."

Sam's face lit up and he used a hand on the back of Josh's head to pull him into a kiss, deeper than the ones they had shared earlier.

"I love you too," Sam murmured against his lips. Josh's heart skipped a beat hearing Sam's words. He knew he had never felt like this before, had known for awhile that it really was love he felt for the other man, but actually _saying_ it, and hearing Sam say it back? Words couldn't begin to describe it.

"I love you," Josh repeated again. He rested his forehead against Sam's again and the two boys just smiled at each other for a minute. Josh brought one of his hands from where it had been resting on Sam's hip to brush his lover's cheek. "In case it wasn't clear, I want to spend Christmas with you too."

"Oh, good," Sam laughed. "You had me worried for a minute there."

"You shouldn't be," Josh said seriously. "I always want to be with you."

"I know."

"Wait here one sec," Josh instructed. He pushed Sam from his lap so he could stand and hurried off to the spare bedroom, ignoring Sam's protests. He returned with a medium-sized, messily wrapped box, complete with a store-bought bow, and he placed it under the tree. "There, now it's a Christmas tree."

"Wait, what is that?" Sam jumped up and crossed the room. Josh caught him by the waist before he could bend down to grab the gift and pulled him against his own body.

"That's your Christmas gift, so don't touch."

"But I _wanna_ ," Sam whined childishly.

"Babe, it's like three days until Christmas," Josh reminded him. "You can wait three days."

"I'm not so sure about that," Sam mumbled, but he didn't fight against Josh's hold, so Josh steered them back in the direction of the couch.

"Wait!" Sam stopped. He jerked away and Josh was prepared to run interference but instead of turning back towards the tree he turned towards the kitchen. Josh watched as he skipped towards one of the bottom cabinets where he pulled out another box, wrapped a lot more neatly that the one Josh had made.

"You hid my gift with the pots and pans?" Josh asked in amusement.

"Josh, when was the last time you used a pot or pan? Or anything else in the kitchen, for that matter."

"Fair point," Josh conceded. Sam lightly whacked him on the back of the head as he walked by again, placing his gift next to Josh's under their tiny tree.

"I should probably get some lights or something, make this a little more festive," Sam commented. Josh stood behind him again and wrapped his arms around Sam's waist.

"You'll collapse that poor tree," Josh replied.

"What about glitter?"

"You bring glitter into this apartment I'll kill you," Josh warned.

"Fine," Sam surrendered. He probably knew that Josh would just make him clean it all up and while of the two of them Sam did tend to do more household chores, even he wasn't particularly fond of vacuuming. Josh was saving them a major headache on December twenty-sixth, he was sure.

"Besides, I think it's perfect just like this," Josh added. "It's got character. It's very—I don't know—us."

"What, a barely-functioning disaster?" Sam laughed.

"No! Well, yes," Josh admitted. "But it's…I don't know. It's different, it's struggling, but it's still here. One way or another, it's a Christmas tree. I think that's kinda cool."

"Yeah," Sam breathed. "That is pretty cool."

'Cool' seemed like such a trivial word to describe just how moved Josh was by the simple fact that his boyfriend had taken the time to go out and find them this little Christmas tree, and that he actually _wanted_ to spend the holidays with Josh. They had only been together for about four months, Josh wouldn't have been offended at all if Sam had chosen to go back to California for a few days. But Sam had chosen to stay here with him and had even gotten them a Christmas tree despite the fact that they really didn't spend too much time in their apartment. Josh felt so lucky he could cry.

"Now," Josh took a steadying breath before turning Sam so that they faced each other. "On Christmas, I say we sleep in, because I for one am like six months behind on sleep, then we can wake up slowly, maybe have some breakfast in bed?"

"Made by who?"

"Made by you, probably, can I finish?"

"Please do."

" _Anyways_ ," Josh continued patiently. "We can have breakfast in bed, open presents. My mom said she sent us something, it should be here by Christmas. Then I can take you out for dinner. Somewhere nice, hopefully. I mean, not _too_ nice, because it's like three days away and I haven't actually made reservations anywhere so I'm guessing all the really nice places will be booked. And I want a beer, so somewhere with beer. But nice. How does that sound?"

"I think that sounds perfect," Sam smiled, kissing his cheek. "Although, just getting takeout and watching a movie sounds good too."

"It's Christmas, Sam, no reason we can't do both."

"Okay," Sam agreed. He grabbed Josh's hands from his hips and held them in each of his. "I just want to spend the day with you. That's my perfect Christmas."

"Mine too," Josh agreed. "You, and a beer."

"Yes, Josh, you'll get beer," Sam rolled his eyes, but his smile remained fond.

"And you," Josh repeated.

"Yeah," Sam replied softly, raising their joined hands to rest against his chest and giving Josh's hands a squeeze. "You've got me."

The streets were grey and slushy from an annoying mix of snow and rain, the constant presence of Christmas music had been giving him headaches for weeks, Josh had to work every day except Christmas Day, and Sam's little tree was already starting to drop needles on their presents. But, there were presents under the tree, they had food in the fridge—Sam had even bought eggnog, the winter-loving dork—and loving families who they would almost surely call together on Christmas Day, and best of all, Josh got to share all of it with the most incredible boyfriend he could ever ask for.

Josh wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's waist and Sam molded himself instinctively to Josh's body. As Josh melted into his lover's embrace, he heard Sam whisper ' _I love_ you' once more, and he realized just how lucky he was. There was a good chance this would be his best Christmas yet.

 **I hope yall enjoyed this mess of sweet boys being fluffy what can i say its what they do *shrugs* let me know what you thought of this! (or if there are any other scenarios you wanna see in this universe lmk im not writing these in any order lol)**

 **Also I promise the next thing I post will be a new chapter of What's Next I FINALLY actually know what I'm writing so hopefully it'll be a matter of days while I actually, y'know, write it**


End file.
